6. Earth-boy Medicine - The Work Camp Earth-boy

The Work Camp Earth-boy

By Earth-boy

Thanks to everyone who's written me so far about this story! All comments are appreciated. Since I'm planning to submit this story to other sites, I'll try to work in some changes for those audiences.

This tale is part an earth-boy’s story of working with a group of humans in a remote forest camp, and part an anthropological survey of earth-boys, their beliefs and culture. As such, part of text is the earth-boy talking with humans about his life. These conversations run the risk of disrupting the story flow and annoying people looking for a sex and adventure tale. Starting with this chapter, I’ve tagged some significant sections like this with the symbol ⟡. So if you find the lessons on earth-boys unpalatable, you can safely skim that section or just skip ahead from the ⟡ to the start of the next section.

Comments are welcome at earth-boy-2755@proton.me, and constructive criticism as well. As I’ve mentioned before, this story is complete (12 chapters in all.) But as of the date I’ve posted this, I can entertain suggestions as long as they don’t break the established plot or have a serious impact on the remaining chapters.

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Quick disclaimers:

• This story contains descriptions of sex between teen and pre-teen males. Do not read if you’re under 18 or it is illegal where you’re living.
• Copyright by the author. Do not upload to pay-to-view sites.
• This story is fiction; references to individuals are coincidental.
• No children or teenagers were harmed in the creation of this story.

Chapter 6. Earth-boy Medicine

Monday, and we were back to our regular schedule. I helped Savros with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and keeping the kitchen and main hut clean and tidy. I also started giving the huts a quick floor cleaning in the afternoon and making the beds, despite my earlier reluctance to do it. I guess I wasn’t so upset with Egan after all.

Mid-afternoon the relative quiet of the camp was broken by the roar of a large truck slowly climbing its way in low gear up the trail to the camp. When it emerged from the forest I saw it was a water truck. A camp like this one went through a lot of water in a week, so it was infeasible to haul it in five gallon jugs from town on Sundays in the camp’s truck. The driver spent some time filling our water tank, then went to the main hut where Egan signed for the delivery.

It took a bit of a dance to get the large water truck turned around in the small camp. Egan first moved the camp’s truck out of its space and on to the road. The water truck’s driver then used the space to execute a three point turn so its nose was now pointed to the road. Finally Egan put his truck back in its parking spot and the water truck departed.

“I can move the truck for you next week if you want,” I told Egan.

“No way am I letting you behind the wheel of my truck!” he replied. “I don’t even know if you have a driver’s license. Besides, how do I know you won’t steal it and drive it back to town?”

I considered my answer carefully. “I guess you don’t. Now I could probably take the keys from your hut after you have sex with me tonight, but I wouldn’t do that. I can survive a few days in the forest if I wanted to leave on my own, so I don’t see any reason to strand you guys here by taking the truck.”

Egan frowned. “You know, sometimes you guys are just too passive for your own good.”

“What do you mean?” I didn’t really understand his comment.

“You earth-boys are weak! You just don’t fight back. That’s why I figured I’d be able to get away with grabbing you like I did. I won’t have to pay you and you won’t snitch to the authorities. And you’re having so much fun with Savros and getting laid by everyone that you probably don’t care about anything else.”

“You know, you’re right about most of that,” replied after a moment’s thought. “I like the forest and I like the sex. But I’m also curious about just what it is you’re doing here. Why all the mystery?”

“That’s not for you to know, boy, so don’t bother asking!” And the conversation was over.

✵   ✵   ✵

That afternoon I approached Savros with a grin on my face. “I have a little present for you,” I told him.

His smile at seeing me went even broader. “Oh! What is it?”

With a flourish I held out my hand and opened it.

Savros looked a little perplexed. “What’s that?”

“An agor nut! I produced one just now.”

Savros’ expression changed to one of awe as he picked it up from out of my hand. “A real earth-boy agor nut?”

“I believe so. I’m a real earth-boy, after all.”

“Wow, thanks! Like you said yesterday, you guys usually eat most of them yourselves. So I’m guessing there aren’t many of these outside your groves.”

“You’re right about that. Some university anthropology departments have a few. There may be some in private collections, but I understand they’re not that rare, so they’re not worth very much. By the way, most of the ones for sale on e-Bay are fake.”

“Well, I’m going to keep it, so it won’t end up in tomorrow’s dinner. Will it go bad?”

“I’m not sure,” I replied. “The ones we keep in the grove don’t, but I think that’s because we store them in a special covered bowl in the meadow where the bolls are. There’s probably a lot of eren there to keep them good, ready for planting.”

Savros thought it over. “I think if I varnished it, it would keep. Thanks again!”

He gave me a big kiss on the cheek, then for good measure turned me around and planted another on my bum cheek.

✵   ✵   ✵

Monday evening I started my campaign to be allowed to go into town again the following Sunday. I figured it would take some work. I was the least important person on the crew, so it didn’t make much sense that two humans should have to stay behind in camp just to let me have a seat in the truck to town.

I first approached Riley with the idea that I could squeeze into the back seat with three other guys. After all, I was pretty small and the truck was huge. Unfortunately Riley wouldn’t hear of it.

“There are only three seat-belts in the back, so it’s illegal to put four there,” he said. “If there’s an accident and you’re injured or killed, the driver could be facing manslaughter charges. I can’t allow it.”

“Can I ride in the back with the supplies?” I asked.

“No; that’s probably more illegal than not having a seatbelt on in the back seat. The ride would probably be pretty uncomfortable, and you could be injured if the cargo shifts around.”

After thinking things through, I figured I had to convince Riley and Martin to stay behind. That would be tough! Riley was the leader and Martin looked like the type who rarely passed up an opportunity for a good time. Egan would insist on going because he disliked having anyone driving what he thought of as his truck. Larry and Jared deserved a day in town, having sat out the previous trip. And Savros was needed because he bought the food for the week. That meant all six men had a good reason to go to town while I had none.

After more thought, I realized I didn’t need to get all the way to town; just far enough out of camp that I could get a cell phone signal. But not even that looked promising. The signal was very low at the point where we left the highway to take the gravel road into the hills. Even with my gift to find a direct path through the forest I couldn’t make it to the highway and back inside of an afternoon, so my absence would surely be noticed.

I wondered if I could manufacture an emergency of some sort that would force a trip to town. That could be difficult, too, because our gifts were geared toward preservation instead of destruction.

I thought about it for the rest of the evening but could not come up with a plan.

✵   ✵   ✵

⟡ “Do earth-boys produce anything useful?” Egan unexpectedly asked me at dinner.

“What do you mean by ‘useful’?” I asked.

“Primarily things we can use,” he replied. “Take bees, for instance. They make honey. But wasps? They’re just a nuisance.”

“Well, back in the past we produced a lot of really good things and we still have a couple of things you like buying from us. Do you have any earth-boy pottery?”

“No,” said Egan. “Why should I? It costs a lot and isn’t as good as what I can buy from a decent store.”

I had to agree. “You’re right; it’s expensive. That’s because it’s all hand-made. You simply can’t make earth-boy pottery in a big factory. You need the earth-boy himself to infuse it with eren as he works the clay.”

“What’s eren?” Egan asked.

I realized to now I’d talked about eren only with Larry and Savros. “Earth-energy. The Earth gives us gifts and we call on eren to use them. Like the other day when I climbed the tree to get Jared’s Frisbee. It lets us calm down angry beasts, do some healing, find paths and food in the forest, grow plants faster; things like that.”

Egan snorted. “Why should I have to pay more just for some earth-boy fantasy magic?”

“You’ve never broken an earth-boy plate, have you?”

“No, but that’s because I’ve never bought one.”

“You should try it some time,” I said. “Really. Get an earth-boy plate or mug, break it, then soak the pieces in water for a few minutes. Put it back together—the seams will hold well enough that it won’t fall apart. Then let it sit outside on the ground for a day. On the ground is important, otherwise it won’t be able to get the eren it needs to finish repairing itself. A day later and it’s good as new. You can’t even see where the cracks were.”

That got me a rather cold stare from Egan. “Do you have any more tall tales?”

Larry came to my rescue. “He’s not lying. I took earth-boy plates, mugs, and bowls with me on canoe trips. They’re remarkably light for their size and, yes, they do self-repair. Break a mug in the evening, put it back together and leave it overnight, and in the morning it’s strong enough to survive the day’s canoe trip. Next morning you can drink out of it again.”

Egan frowned. He apparently didn’t like being shown he was wrong.

“Anyone here drink greywolf tea?” I asked.

“I prefer coffee,” said Martin.

“I like it,” Jared said. “Sometimes I have a mug at night to help me sleep.”

“And I like it as well,” said Riley. “But yes, only in the evenings, because it’s a mild sedative, unlike caffeine. I know it grows in groves, which means it’s a local product. We don’t have to ship it all the way from India to get it to our table.”

“And I’m sure some of you are familiar with its brother yovissi,” I said.

That got smiles from Jared and Martin. “Smoking yovissi gives a nice buzz,” said Jared. “And it smells nicer than weed.”

“And it’s not illegal,” Martin added. “It’s so mild it doesn’t get the same attention marijuana does. But yovi cigarettes cost just as much as regular ones thanks to all the stupid taxes the government puts on them.”

“Right, so that’s three things right there: self-healing pottery, greywolf tea, and yovissi. How many of you have had koy berries, either by themselves or in a pie or jam?”

There was general agreement on that. Koy berries are deliciously sweet.

I thought some more. “Any of you ever use plausse, fennet or tenstral when you got sick?”

“I’ve heard of them,” said Larry. “They’re pretty popular in the herbal remedy aisle. And I know tenstral is the basis for tenastaprin, which is usually sold as Fevredux.”

I added, “For ages humans have bought plausse, fennet, and tenstral to treat illness and fever. Plausse and fennet aren’t used as much any more because humans have invented better drugs. But in poor areas they’re still used a lot. Oh, Savros, have you ever used dace?”

“Indeed I have,” he said. “As a spice it can do amazing things for some dishes. But it’s really expensive, so there’s not much true dace around. Most of what’s in the stores today is artificial.”

I nodded. “That I know.” I thought some more. “Uh, worto root. It’s not very popular around here, but I understand it’s still eaten a lot in Europe.”

“Worto!” exclaimed Martin. “My grandmother was from Yugoslavia and she had it every Christmas dinner along with other vegetables in the main course. Yeah, it has a distinctive flavour, but I got used to it as a kid.”

“And we use it a bit in Greek cooking,” Savros added. “Usually as one of many ingredients in a casserole or soup.”

I remembered something else. “Has anyone ever bought a shirt or scarf dyed tapalae blue?”

“I’ve got a shirt like that,” said Egan. “My mother bought it for me one Christmas. It’s silk and a mean shade of blue. It makes a hell of an impression when I turn up for job interviews wearing it.”

“All right,” I said, “to sum up, I’ve mentioned our pottery; greywolf tea and yovissi; plausse, fennet and tenstral for medicines; koy berries, dace and worto for food; and tapalae for dying. All these come from earth-boy groves.”

“An impressive list,” said Larry. “And you forgot about canort and sofell.”

I was impressed. “How do you know so much about this?” I asked.

“It was among the things I learned back in the days when I was more interested in nature than money. Over the last year I’ve been catching up on it again. The wundgheri plant lives up to its name.”

“What do you mean?” Jared asked.

“Wundgheri means literally ‘wonder plant’,” Larry replied. “It produces everything we’ve talked about up to now.”

The table went silent for several seconds as everyone processed this. Finally Riley asked in astonishment, “You’re telling me all that comes from the same plant?”

Larry confirmed it. “Yes. Like I said, wundgheri means ‘wonder plant.’ It got that name because it produces so many different things and doesn’t need a lot of care to do it. Wundgheri’s so unique that its scientific classification puts it into its own clade, family, order, and genus. It’s amazing no matter how you look at it.”

“How can that be?” asked Jared. “If it’s such an incredible plant, how come we’re not growing it everywhere?”

Larry and I looked at each other, wondering which one of us should answer the question.

He nodded at me, so I spoke. “It grows only in earth-boy groves that are inhabited. It’s something to do with eren and us earth-boys being around to make it flow. If we have to abandon a grove, all the wundgheri dies soon after. And it just doesn’t grow outside of groves. Humans have tried for ages and they’ve never made it work.”

Larry added, “Not even modern plant science has been able to figure that out.”

“What are those last two things Larry mentioned?” asked Jared.

Larry answered. “Canort and sofell. Canort is the stalk, like bamboo. Areas of the world that don’t have a lot of good building materials use it a fair bit. Sofell is a long fibre inside the stalk. In the past it was used for making ropes and sails, but these days we have better materials, so it’s not as well known anymore.”

“Alright, let’s go through this all,” Riley said. “Greywolf tea and yovissi. You say these come from the wonder plant?”

“First year leaves,” I answered. “Wundgheri starts out as a low to the ground bush. We pluck the bottom to middle leaves for greywolf tea, then a couple of weeks later get more leaves for yovissi.”

“The medicines you mentioned … ?” Jared asked.

“Plausse comes from the second year growth. The plant re-awakens and shoots up like bamboo, adding leaves all the way up. The lower leaves get shaded out, and we collect them as they dry out and fall. We dry them further in the sun or with heat from our pottery kilns. Then we pack them into fairly large pottery jars and fill them with water. Over the next six weeks the water breaks down the leaves and leaves behind a yellow slurry. We add honey to the mixture, and there’s the plausse.”

“Oh, that’s why it tastes sort of sweet,” said Jared. “I often got plausse when I came down with a stomach ache.”

“And fennet?” asked Riley.

“Fennet’s from the third year. I need to back up a bit. In the second and third years we tap the stalk for its latex, sort of like how you get maple syrup. That’s known as tenstral. It’s pretty good at reducing fever, but we and humans usually combine it with other things to make it easier to swallow. By itself it tastes pretty nasty.”

“What happens in the third year?” Riley asked.

“Not yet—I haven’t mentioned the flowers yet! In its second year wundgheri produces big crimson tapalae flowers with yellow stalks. The stalks we trim, dry out, and grind into dace spice—“

“Like saffron!” Savros exclaimed. “No wonder it’s so bloody expensive!”

“Exactly. And even though the flowers are red, after some processing they produce the tapalae blue dye.”

Larry jumped in. “Egan, have you noticed how your shirt doesn’t fade?”

“I’ve heard it doesn’t fade.”

“That’s because It’s more colourfast than indigo,” said Larry. “But again, the supply’s limited, so it’s much more expensive to dye something blue with tapalae than with indigo.”

“All right,” I continued. “Now we’re at wundgheri’s third year. It produces koy berries all summer long in great amounts. I’m pretty sure we had something to do with that by using seeds from the best producing plants for the next crop. We love koy and so do you, and we sell a lot of the crop to humans. It kind of gives a new meaning to the term cash crop.”

Riley asked, “Where does fennet come from?”

“The plausse leaves die off at the end of the second year and are replaced with what look like pine needles, but bigger and longer. They’re known as canort, which can be confusing because that name’s also used for the stalk itself. At the end of the season they fall off by themselves and accumulate in heaps at the base of the plant. Like the plausse leaves, we leave them in water mixed with a few other things—I forget exactly what—and after a while we have the fennet paste. It’s good for pain relief from inflammation.”

“But wait, there’s more!” said Larry, imitating some TV commercials. “In addition to all this, with your wundgheri plant you also get canort, sofell, and even worto!”

“My wundgheri plant,” I responded, smiling. “Yours would die because it’s not in a grove. Like we mentioned earlier, canort’s the left over stalk and inside it are the sofell fibres. And after all that, the root’s edible as worto. We like it, and like Savros and Martin mentioned, it’s eaten in Europe, too.”

Larry added, “Here in North America it’s known in places where immigrants from Germanic and Slavic countries settled. Not so much the French or southern Europeans, nor Ukrainians or Poles.”

Egan wasn’t all that impressed. “Just what I need, a smart-ass earth-boy and a smug environmentalist who knows everything.”

“But you have to agree that earth-boys produce things that are usable today, right?” asked Riley.

“Just barely. We do most of it better now. We’ve got better drugs and better building materials and cheaper tableware.”

By now the main course had finished, so Savros and I cleared the plates and brought out dessert.

✵   ✵   ✵

Tonight was my second night with Egan. Not wanting a repeat of our first encounter, I used my calming gift on him as we headed for his hut. It certainly had an effect, but not as strong as I thought it should have been.

Tonight he spent the time to get naked. In the dim light—the sun had gone down some time before so it was twilight—I saw a man with a decent body, one that looked like it hit the gym often. I could also see why he shaved every morning: for someone who didn’t look much over thirty years of age he had a remarkable amount of body hair. It was a decided contrast to me who had none aside from the green bush on my head.

Despite the calm I had sent him, Egan was still very aggressive when the sex started. More than that, this time around he was vocal. And crude.

“Yeah, take my dick you fucking little bitch! You like it, don’t you, whore? Oh yeah, I really like fucking sluts like you! Give it to me good! Your ass is so fucking tight, boy! Take it, bitch! Oh yeah, you’re one great little whore-boy, aren’t you?”

He kept up the monologue for five minutes until I’d had enough. Usually we don’t mind being called whores, sluts, or boys, but the way Egan used the words it was clear he was degrading me.

An earth-boy ending sex early is like an elephant dancing: it’s not so much that the elephant dances well, it’s that it dances at all. Earth-boys very rarely end sex early, but between his rough manner and constant insults I wasn’t in a mood to give him a good time. I used a bit of action on my amorial muscles and combined it with eren to bring Egan to a mild orgasm. He let out a couple of weak shots, then pumped hard a few more times in an attempt to do better. In response I carefully loosened my amoryn so he could feel it less and less. Finally he gave up and pulled out.

“You call that sex, you fucking little bitch?” he seethed. “I’ve gotten better from a whore on the downtown East Side! Get the fuck out of here!” With that he opened the door and threw me out into the night. The hut door slammed behind me.

I was scratched up a little but wasn’t bleeding anywhere. A few minutes sitting naked on the ground to draw upon eren took care of the damage.

I figured that was either the last time we’d have sex, or he’d be really rough the next time. Since I wasn’t satisfied, I quietly went to Jared’s. My time with Egan had been so brief that Jared wasn’t even asleep, and he enthusiastically welcomed me into his bed. We had a great time and fell asleep together, our arms around each other.

Later that night I went to Savros’ hut. I got a bit of a surprise when I got into bed with him: he wasn’t wearing anything. I smiled; this was much more comfortable for me.

✵   ✵   ✵

The second day of my campaign to go to town on Sunday went no better than the first. I changed tactics to try convincing one of the crew to stay behind to give me a seat in the truck. I didn’t ask Egan, for I knew he wouldn’t even hear of it, especially after literally throwing me out of his hut the night before. I also didn’t ask Savros or Jared. I knew Savros he was needed in town because he bought the camp’s food, and I liked Jared and didn’t want to deny him the trip a second week in a row.

Boldly I asked Riley if he’d consider staying behind, but he simply smiled and said “No.” I approached Martin cautiously, promising him a couple of really good nights if he’d give up his seat for me. He said he’d think about it, but it sounded like he wouldn’t give it that much of a thought.

Last up was Larry. I didn’t really want to ask him because he’d not been in town the previous Sunday. But out of the entire crew he was also the most laid back. He gave me the distinct impression he wouldn’t mind not going to town two weeks in a row if someone offered him a compelling reason for it. Unfortunately I couldn’t bribe him with a promise of extra sex, since we hadn’t done anything the last time we were together. As I’d expected, because I couldn’t come up with a good enough reason he said he’d prefer to be in town the next Sunday.

✵   ✵   ✵

Wednesday afternoon Jared burst into the main hut in a panic. “Where’s the first aid kit?” he urgently asked me and Savros. “There’s been an accident and Martin’s been injured!”

“Over there on the wall,” Savros replied, pointing to a green box with prominent white cross on it. “What happened?”

Jared plucked the box off the wall. “He got hit in the leg with an axe! There’s a whole lot of blood we need to clean away before we can examine him! We may have to take him to hospital.”

Riley appeared. “We need bandages and something for a tourniquet!”

Unexpectedly Egan joined in. “I’m certified in first aid. I bought that kit myself. It has tensor bandages, sterile pads, and saline solution. I’ll go with you to the field and tend to Martin. We can also use a blanket and two poles for a makeshift stretcher.” He looked at me. “Boy, you go get a blanket! Savros and Riley, you look for something for the poles.”

Egan and Jared took off at a run.

Because he’d bodily thrown me out of his hut on Monday night, I would have normally disregarded such a direct order from Egan. But right now we had an injured man. I went for the first blanket I could think of: the one in Savros’ hut. I returned with it to the main hut. Jared was already gone, while Riley and Savros were frantically searching the camp for something they could use for poles.

Unfortunately my limited gifts couldn’t help them there. We can make things grow a little faster, but we can’t raise a whole tree in five minutes. And we can’t kill a tree at all using eren. Canort stalks from a mature wundgheri would have been perfect, but the nearest grove was miles away.

Nevertheless I joined in the search. I used pathfinding to see if there was anything to be had, but all it showed me was a bunch of paths through the forest, a stream about a kilometre from the camp, and a lot of edible plants.

In the last moments of the pathfinding I saw the dead and dying trees in the pile left behind from when the camp was cleared. “Hey!” I called out. “Do we have any axes? We can clear branches from smaller trees in the pile over there!”

“I was about to suggest the same thing,” said Riley.

Savros added, “We have an axe and two hatchets in the storage shed.” Since we had a lot of the camp’s food there, he was in the shed more than anyone else and was probably the best acquainted with its contents. He ran to get the axe and hatchets.

I got Riley’s attention. “Get Martin out here as soon as you can. I’m no doctor, but earth-boys can use eren to patch up some pretty nasty injuries, and heal any infections he might get. The sooner I can see him, the better.”

“That’s an even better idea!” He called out, “Savros, the boy and I are going there now to see what we can do! I’ll send Larry to help make the poles. Bring them to the work field as soon as you can!”

He took off at a run toward the path to the north field. I followed. The path was shorter than I thought it would be, barely fifty metres (160 feet) from start to end.

I couldn’t help but take a quick glance at the area I wasn’t supposed to be seeing. The large trees were still standing, but the underbrush had been cleared out. Sticks had been planted in the ground throughout the cleared area. In a few places holes had been dug, but most had been filled in again.

I heard Riley tell Larry he was needed in the main camp to help trim tree branches to make two poles.

Martin had been moved to the head of the trail. He was very pale and breathing hard. The pants of his lower left leg were in tatters and covered in blood. The first aid kit was open and Egan and Jared were busy applying sterile pads to his wound in attempt to staunch the flow.

I sat down on the ground beside them; I needed the extra surface area in my bare bum to be in contact with the earth. “I’m going to use eren to stop the bleeding,” I told Egan and Jared.

“I’m in charge here,” said Egan.

I paused for a few seconds to get a calm ready and sent it to Egan. “I can help, too,” I said. “Depending on what’s damaged I can use eren to do a lot of the initial healing.”

A calm is usually used to dissipate anger or aggression; using it on people who don’t display either makes them more open to suggestions. It doesn’t compel them, but does make them pause for a second thought.

“Alright, give it a try. I’ll jump in if things don’t improve.”

“Please pull the pads off so I can touch him.”

They did so. More blood started welling up. I placed both my hands on his injured leg and let the eren flow through them. In seconds I could feel the blood slowing down. I started to feel around. He had a severe cut that extended down his back calf muscle from about halfway from his knee to nearly his ankle.

“What happened?” I asked.

Riley answered. “From what I understand, Martin and Larry were clearing a new section. They’d hit a thick patch of brush and were both chopping away at it with axes. Someone wasn’t watching carefully and Larry hit Martin instead of the bush he was going for.”

By now the blood flow and stopped and my eren was fuelling his body’s muscle repair.

“Can you tell how bad it is?” asked Riley. “Will he lose his leg?”

“No, I don’t think so. I need a few minutes more to put things back together. Can someone bring warm water and towels so we can clean the wound? Some soap, too.”

“I’ll get those!” said Jared, and ran off.

Voltaire is credited with saying the art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. For earth-boys, healing damage like this means using eren to facilitate and greatly speed up the body’s natural healing process. We can set a broken bone but can’t reattach an amputated limb. We can restore a lacerated ear, but can’t regrow an eye because humans can’t do that themselves. And though I was neither a doctor nor a surgeon, I had available an almost infinite supply of energy that Martin’s body could use for healing.

I channelled more eren into the cut and torn muscle fibres. The cut was deep and cleanly made. I took a moment to send Martin a calm, knowing he’d appreciate it and it would help with my work as well.

Egan and Larry showed up carrying two freshly trimmed small tree trunks. They were quickly followed by Jared with the jug I used to deliver hot water to his hut in the morning, a bowl, and some towels.

“How are you feeling, Martin?” asked Larry, very concerned over the emergency he’d caused.

“Better, thanks to the boy,” came the reply. “He’s doing a real good job patching things up here!”

I took my hands off his leg. “He’s good enough now that I think we take his pants off and start washing his wound. But Martin, please try to move your leg as little as possible and do not try to stand up.”

“Alright,” he said. He undid his belt, loosened his pants, then with a bit of shuffling pushed them down to his thighs. “Riley, Larry, take my shoes off, then each take a pant leg and pull.”

In a minute the torn and very dirty pants were off him. Jared had already poured water into the bowl. My eren not needed for the moment, I used the warm water to wash my hands and let Egan spend a few minutes cleaning his lower leg. Martin winced visibly when Egan started applying antiseptic to the wound, and I put a hand there to ease the pain.

The wound now clean, I returned to my work.

“The muscles are healing up nicely,” I said. “I also found a couple of places where an infection might have been starting and killed it off. I’ll be working at this for a few minutes more. After that we should carry him out on the stretcher and have him lay down for the rest of the day and overnight. I think by morning he’ll be able to walk again.”

“Someone should be with him at all times,” said Egan. “Would you mind if we set you down in the main hut until bed time?”

“I’d rather be there than in hospital any day!” Martin replied.

Everyone stayed while I continued my work. There wasn’t much to see, for all I was doing was channelling eren into Martin’s left leg while his body continued its repairs. Finally I reached a point where I couldn’t feel the eren flowing any more, telling me his body had largely finished its work. I took my hands off his legs.

“Martin, I’m not sure if you can walk or not. I’ve seen other earth-boys heal a broken limb, usually for a young one who fell out of a tree. They always told the boy not to try walking for a day, and had a couple of earth-boys stay with him to make sure he didn’t. I don’t know if that applies to what happened to you, but I think it’s good advice.”

Martin agreed. “I think so, yeah. At least I won’t be in hospital in for a few days. Do you think I should exercise it?”

“I don’t know—I’m not a doctor. But I think you can, and maybe some gentle massage as well to prevent it from stiffening up too much. I really don’t know how it will react to having such a great amount of healing done to it in so short a time.”

“Well, we should get you back to the main hut,” said Riley. “Egan, how does this makeshift stretcher work?”

“It’s something I learned in boy scouts,” came the reply. “Put the blanket on the ground.”

We did so. Egan immediately saw a problem.

“It’s too small. That blanket’s only for a twin bed. Do we have anything bigger like a tarp?”

“We have a nice big tarp in the shed,” said Savros. “No camp is complete without one.”

He ran off, returning a few minutes later with a decent sized tarpaulin, which he spread on the ground. Egan placed the two hastily cut poles at one-third intervals along the tarp, then folded over the ends into the middle as if making a crêpe.

After a fair but of shuffling around, with some assistance from Martin himself, Larry, Egan, and Jared managed to get him onto the stretcher. Egan picked up the head end while Larry got the other, and we all made our way back to the main hut. Larry suggested they get the mattress from Martin’s bed, and the blanket and a fresh pair of pants as well. Jared and I ran to get them. Five minutes later we had Martin laying comfortably on the mattress on the floor of the hut.

“Should we report this to Occupational Health and Safety?” asked Riley. “It was a workplace injury, after all.”

“No!” Egan exclaimed. “The last thing we want is the Department of Labour poking their nose around this place.”

Martin added, “The government’s into too damned much of our lives as it is. Thanks to our earth-boy here, no-one’s going to be any wiser about my injury or how I got it.

“Okay, I agree,” said Riley with just a hint of reluctance. “The fewer people who know we’re here, the better.”

Larry added his two cents. “Being in finance, I had to keep track of and follow a lot of regulations, by the government and the industry itself. Ordinarily I’d say this was reportable, but I’ll side with Martin and let that sleeping dog lie. What the government doesn’t know won’t hurt us.”

✵   ✵   ✵

Savros and I made dinner. Savros asked Martin if he wanted any, to which Martin replied he was very hungry and would really appreciate it. It appeared his body had used a substantial amount of its own energy in healing the injury.

Like the other nights we played a board game, one simple enough that I could join in, but still didn’t win. Martin didn’t join the board game or the poker game, and I gave his healing injury a massage with some eren to prevent it from stiffening up.

“I don’t think Martin should be alone tonight,” said Riley. “I’m sure he’ll survive, but I don’t want any nasty surprises in the morning.”

I volunteered immediately. “I can even sleep in his bed if he wants me to,” I said. “After all, I’m pretty small.”

That’s what we did. Egan and Larry carried Martin to his hut on the stretcher, with Jared and Riley following behind with his bedding. On the way there we stopped briefly outside so I could give him some more eren in case it was needed. Once Martin was settled in his hut, I went outside to recharge my store of eren, in case it was needed overnight.

Despite the rest he’d had this evening, Martin was too tired to have sex with me. I slept in his bed, but with sheet over me while he wrapped a blanket around himself. I missed the sex, but knew I’d get some from Jared in the morning and maybe a round with Savros as well.

✵   ✵   ✵

Thursday morning I awakened to Martin sitting on the edge of the bed while he raised himself a little from a sitting position and settling back down, carefully going higher each time. After several repetitions he was standing.

“How does it feel?” I asked.

“Good!” he replied. “It feels like I’ve only pulled the muscles yesterday, or ran too hard for a while. It seems like it’s completely healed.”

He sat back down beside me, then raised his left calf into view to examine it. “Hmmm,” he said. “Looks like I’ve got a scar there.”

“Probably. I merely sped up your body’s natural healing process by feeding it eren. Scars are often left behind after a bad wound like yours, so I’m not surprised you have one. I’ve seen a few earth-boys with them too.”

He looked at me earnestly. “You know, boy, I … I really don’t know how I can thank you for what you did. That was amazing. I was afraid I’d be walking with a limp for the rest of my life.”

“I did what I could. I’m an earth-boy, and healing like that is one of the gifts the Earth’s given us. I’ve done it only three times before this, mostly on human kids I went to school with when they got hurt. I’m very happy it turned out so well.”

He pulled me into a hug. “About the only thing I can think of is having a good round of sex with you!”

I saw an opportunity. “Well, from the looks of it I’ll be staying behind on Sunday when you guys go into town. Would you be willing to give up your seat again for me?”

He thought about it only briefly. “Yeah, I think I can. If it wasn’t for you I’d be in hospital for a week! So, okay, I can stay behind this week and let you go to town instead of me.”

I smiled to myself. I’d managed to find a way into town after all.